Clear Lake Road Race; Iowa; July 10th

After a very intense race yesterday in Greenwood, I am not sure how my legs will be recovered, especially the fact that today's race is 82 miles and I will start in the categorie PRO-1/2/3. I have to admit, before the race I was really nervous; more nervous than usually, since I was even uncertain if I would be able to keep up with the peleton. Additionally, I did not know the course of the race; since there was only 1 loop to go; and it was 82 miles, so I hope that I will not like for example break my chain or crash and have a mechanical problem. When the race starts the roads are still wet and in the first 3 or 4 corners about 10 riders crash and have to leave the race. I decided to stay at the back of the pack for as long as I could; and surprisingly that went pretty good. The miles really flew by; and before I knew it, we were half race and there was a feeding zone in a small village with a lot of fans next to the road. That is the nice thing about a more professional race; there is more attention. There was TV/Local Newspaper; and more people are cheering for their rider next to the road.


I suspected the race to start picking up more speed ( although we constantly rode 30mph) once we were coming closer to the finish line, but that did not happen. It became more nervous though. Teams were putting their sprinter in front of the pack, people started pushing and passing me on the left and right, but I was able to keep myself in front of the pack. I see that with 5 miles to go; 4 riders have a gap on 2 other riders and then the peleton; I decide to jump to these riders since my legs are still completely fresh. Once I brigded the gap with the 2 riders; I am able to ride with them to the 4 riders in front with 3 miles to go; until the course official calls my number and tells me I have to go to the back of the peleton. ( I must have crossed the center line 5 miles back; when gaining a few spots before I attacked) I am seriously disappointed with this since I tought I would have been able to ride to the front of the race and take a nice place. However everything regroups and there is a group sprint; in this group sprint I realize I need to ASAP change my gearing to more appropriate gearing for racing with the PRO's. I learned some good lessons and realized my fitness is where I would want it to be. I'll be riding more races in August; but first 3 weeks of final training.

Euer,
Joris